White Pine Backcountry Campground Permits
1Heads uppark alert
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- A night
- $13From, per site
- Sites
- 71 on recreation.gov
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
White Pine Backcountry Campground is a primitive camp located in the southern district of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, on the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is located approximately two miles from the Trail's End Road trailhead on the Platte Plains hiking trail south of Empire just off of M-22. This year-round campground has six campsites, two shared fire rings, pit toilet, and two shared animal resistant food storage lockers. Plan to pack your water into the campsite, as there is no well in the campground. Summer temperatures range from upper 70s to 90 degrees F (25° to 32° C) during the day, and from the 50s to 70 degrees F (10° to 25° C) at night. Winters are cold, with daytime highs from 20° to 30° F (-7° to -1° C) and lows in the 10s and 20s F (-12° to -7° C). Snow is usually on the ground from late November through March. Keep reading
Recreation
The Platte Plains trail system boasts more than 25 miles (40 km) of trails, some of which can be accessed a short walk away from the campground.
Facilities
This year-round campground has six campsites, two shared fire rings, pit toilet, and two shared animal resistant food storage lockers. Plan to pack your water into the campsite, as there is no well in the campground. Pack it in, pack it out. Whatever you bring in, you are responsible for bringing out. Trash receptacles are not provided.
Natural Features
The campground is within wilderness. Designated Wilderness areas are the most protected public lands in America. They are managed with restraint to preserve characteristics of wilderness and solitude. The Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness, within the boundaries of the Lakeshore, is over 30,000 acres. The beaches of Lake Michigan are about 1/2 mile (0.80 km) walk from camp. Although the lakeshore is long and narrow, it has northern hardwood and conifer forests, abandoned farm meadows, wetlands, lakes, streams, bogs, and splended examples of glacially formed landscape. The most prominent features in the park, and those for which it is named, are perched sand dunes above Lake Michigan. The overlooks at Sleeping Bear, Empire and Pyramid Point bluffs are about 400 feet (122 m) above the lake. Within 65 miles (105 km) of Lake Michigan shoreline and numberous inland lakes and streams, the park is wonderfully water-oriented.
What the agency tells you
Entrance Fees - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore charges a variety of entrance fees, depending on how a visitor arrives at the park. All visitors must have an entrance pass (separate from camping fees). The park also honors Federal Recreational Lands interagency passes (e.g., annual, senior, access, military, 4th grade, Golden Age). For more information visit the park's Fees & Passes web page. The Michigan Recreation Passport is not valid for entry at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which is a federally managed site.
PERMIT CONDITIONS - 1. This is a required permit area. Print your permit and have it in your possession during your stay. 2. Check-in time is 2 p.m. Check-out time is noon. Quiet hours are 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Noise levels must be controlled at all times. 3. A maximum of two tents and four people are permitted at each backcountry campsite. To minimize impact to natural resources, set up your tent in the cleared area of your campsite. Do not set up your tent on vegetation. 4. Camp only in one of the six designated campsites. Sites are not assigned in advance. Campers choose from the unoccupied sites upon arrival. Each site has a numbered post at its entrance. 5. Use a backpack-style stove for cooking or use the community fire rings provided. Only burn dead, down, and detached wood in the fire ring. Do not burn trash or leave aluminum, glass, or other non-burnable materials in the fire ring. Beach fires are restricted to bare beach sand between the water's edge and the first dune. Do not leave fires unattended. 6. Carry out all refuse. Please leave a clean, neat campsite for the next camper. 7. Pets are prohibited in White Pine Backcountry Campground. 8. Bicycles, wheeled devices, wheelbarrows, wagons, carts, and trailers are prohibited on the Platte Plains trail and the White Pine Backcountry Campground. Do not create short-cuts. 9. Keep all food, drinks, coolers, toiletries, hygiene products, trash, recyclables, and scented items stored in the provided food storage lockers when not in use. Do not feed the wildlife.
Violation of terms may result in permit suspension, revocation and/or issuance of a citation by law enforcement.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 7 · 7 walk-in
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- Bear boxes
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Meadow
- Backpacking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Picnicking
- Stargazing
- Swimming
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 37 km away
- Minimal color
2 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:34 UTC
recreation.gov lists 1 of the 7 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedNot yet released
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 19
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $13 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 15:34 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
7 sites
All 7 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 7 of the 7 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| White Pine | White Pine Campground | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 1 | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 2 | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 3 | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 4 | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 5 | hike to | $13 |
| White Pine | White Pine Campground 6 | hike to | $13 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Platte River CampgroundSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore · 2.3 mi
D.H. Day Group CampgroundSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore · 11 mi
D.H. Day CampgroundSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore · 12 mi
Weather Station Campground - South Manitou IslandSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore · 18 mi
South Manitou Group Campground19 mi
Bay Campground - South Manitou IslandSleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore · 19 miFROM THE EAST (Traverse City): Take State Highway M-72 west to Empire. Turn south on State Highway M-22.
- To Trails End Road: Drive 6 miles to Trails End Road - turn right
Drive 1 mile to the trailhead
- To Platte Plains Ski Trail Parking: Drive 6.5 miles - the trailhead parking area will be on the right
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Empire, MI
Typical weather
Typical October night 43°F, day 56°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land
White Pine Backcountry Campground Permits is in Michigan’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Jack Bergman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →